The Demon Host (1045)

Odin had seen many things in his first life. The pressure that came with being a professional assassin, the piles of bodies he'd left in his wake, none of it prepared him for the Demon horde that surrounded him now. They stretched in all directions, the living carpet of small, gnawing demons of which he once was one, replaced with a fearsome menagerie of monsters that towered over the landscape.

There were thousands of them, tens of thousands. Each one a creature of obsession and power. Each one a being of drive and desire that had known nothing but a desperate fight for survival from the moment of its creation.

Yet even the nightmarish gathering was not enough to outshine the horrors gathered in their centre. Even after all this time, the suffocating aura that rolled off the three demons suppressed him, driving the thoughts from his head and the strength from his limbs.

Torrifex, a mass of fire and violence, stood tall amidst the throng. The heat rolling from the giant demon was oppressive, even to a fellow denizen of this place such as Odin. Hidden behind the veil of black smoke that permanently billowed from his form, Torrifex's eyes glowed with malicious glee as he beheld the scene around him.

No less terrifying were his sisters. Pyrixan possessed a dreadful visage of ash. All that came near her was subject to her frightful power. Odin himself had seen three demons dissolve to nothing, disintegrated by her mere presence.

She had been the first. Torrifex had woken her from her deep slumber as part of his divine mission, issued through Odin by Arconidem himself. The Demon God had commanded that this layer of the Dungeon be made ready for his return, and Torrifex would not tolerate failure in this task.

With Pyrixan by his side, and Odin trailing behind, Torrifex had set out to liberate his final associate. Somonax had slept beneath a field of rusted weapons, stuck in the ground like a graveyard of armaments. Only later Odin realised that those had been placed to seal that which dwelled beneath.

Somonax rose from the cursed ground as a mass of red blades that writhed with her need for death. A concentrated entity of murder, the tier eight demon was, in Odin's opinion, the most fearsome of the three. Even more so than Torrifex himself.

With the three servants of the Demon God gathered, they had begun a campaign of terror amongst the lands, gathering powerful members of their kind to their banner as they went. Wherever they passed, the demon larvae that covered the ground seethed with vigour that exceeded their normal activity.

[You think too much, little mouse,] Torrifex noted, looking down on the former assassin. [You are not required to think. You are required to serve.]

The great demon often reminded him of his… obligations. The task had been laid on him by Arconidem himself, and Odin had been its prisoner ever since.

[How will I understand how to serve if I do not think?] he rebutted in a rare show of courage.

Such outbursts were rare, as Torrifex had ways of making him regret them, but he was not completely cowed just yet. At his core, Odin was a survivor. He wouldn't break so easily.

[Simple, little mouse,] came the response, [you listen. Arconidem has spoken to you directly. All you need do is follow his instruction.]

[I woke you,] Odin said, his courage failing under the direct glare of the three great demons. [I have done what he asked. When will I be… free?]

The last word came out as barely a whisper of a thought as the heat of Torrifex grew unbearable when he leaned closer.

[You think, but you do not listen. My sisters and I are assembled once more, but the work has not yet begun. Recall what the demon god commanded. We are to purge the demon lands of the weak, slaughter the unworthy and burn the outsiders. Our task will only be complete when this entire layer of the Dungeon has been set aflame with cleansing fire. Only then will it be worthy of its master.]

Odin paused, his fearsome demon form appearing to hesitate in the face of such indomitable power. He thought of all the slaughter that had occurred up to this point, the thousands of deaths that had been required to bring these three together. And they hadn't even started?

[I don't understand what that means,] he said, [this place already burns like a vision of hell. There is fire and lava everywhere I see. The entire place is covered in demons, top to bottom. What outsiders? Who are the weak? What makes one unworthy? I don't know why I am here.]

[You stink of death,] Somonax breathed and he recoiled as her thoughts touched his. Even her mind reeked of blood. [Arconidem can smell it too. He called you for a reason. Not because of what you are, weak and pathetic, but what you may become. His return will herald a new uprising, when demonkind will set aside their obsessions and focus on their true purpose. To kill.]

[All that are not demon, do not belong here,] Pyrixan interjected. [This place is ours, it belongs to us. The demon god granted it to us long ago and now we must drive out those who have come to infest it.]

The second sister was just as unpleasant to converse with. As her thoughts brushed against his own, he felt his own sense of self begin to weaken, nibbled at the edges by some phantom hunger.

They're talking about some holy war. They want to annihilate everything that isn't a demon in all of these lands?

Odin had seen numerous other creatures already in his journey throughout this blasted landscape. It was clear now, Arconidem, and by extension Torrifex and every demon he drew to his side, wanted to destroy them all.

[Little mouse. Still you think. You are far too weak to be thinking so much. The demon god has done the thinking for you.]

He spread his hands.

[All we need do is kill. Let it begin.]